Tambling Dice

Exactly....mind you they did have Sammy Lee on the coaching staff....deep pockets required now.

I propose a managerial job share. Just retain Conte as defensive co-ordinator and Sarri to take care of attacking duties. Use the £9m saved in not paying out Conte's contract to pay Sarri's release clause. Not sure who gets the big desk but perhaps one of them can arrange to WFH.... Now let's move on..........

Nah....

FFS .... Pedro starts....(happy to be called out after he has a stormer)

Of course winning is important, but would be equally pleased to see us change our strategy. Probably employing Luiz as a 'rush-goalie' is a step too far, but a change in formation and a few fresh faces would be equally encouraging.

That's it Chelsea. Hoof it to Eden and hope he beats 6 men and then slots it home. That's the way to do it.

Scanning the various transfer threads today has made for some of the most depressing reading I can recall. Echo most of the sentiments from you sensible chaps and totally do not understand why we're not in pole position for a much needed world class attacker.

Need to put their back 4 under some pressure. Watching game in a Nubian village (Egypt) Salah mania out here unsurprisingly

Heavy as in 'David Unsworth' heavy?

Always fearful when opening such negative threads.....wasn't disappointed....absolutely pointless. Give GC a break please .... And OP, I think your warm milk is ready.

And Huddersfield beat Utd.....not too shabby a day after all.

Classic rope a dope...draw them in for 70 mins and then biff-baff-doof... Conte Bomaye! Conte Bomaye!

So now there are reports that various factions are complaining about Conte's training regime and methods being too hard and contributing to our injury backlog. Seems to go against the message from the playing staff that we need to 'work, work, work' to sort out our problems. Notwithstanding I fear the cycle of disruption is beginning to repeat itself irrespective of whether there is any truth to the rumours. Once you begin to openly criticise and report the way someone is doing their job then its downhill from there. Perhaps Carlo is the right man for the job. Rumours there were that the Bayern players organised their own training sessions as they felt they weren't being worked hard enough.

Shocking start...Townsend doing whatever he wants.

Wednesday's performance was outstanding and the effort and preparation required to pull it off clearly took its toll. Some players were clearly not at their best and losing Morata changed the gameplan. We didn't appear to have a decent Plan B and I was a surprised by that seeing as Conte is obviously a great tactician and in my opinion a match for Pep. Perhaps just not enough time to do the necessary to prepare for both games in enough detail. Must admit that I was a bit surprised the we lined up for both very different styles with basically the same setup and appeared to just hope it was going to work twice. Was expecting something different like maybe a shift to a defensive four since it was clear our fullbacks weren't going to be able to bomb forward and we weren't setup for that. Yep we defended well, and don't get me wrong, thought Christensen and Rudiger came through it well but we were always going to have enough back there to cope with most of what they could throw. Hate to say it, but I tend to agree with 'Slippy Steve' in that our setup paid them too much respect. Maybe we missed Luiz's forward thinking instincts more than we think. I also think that this would have a great game for Drinkwater, so unlucky there. Basically Conte was out thought and we were a bit leggy but plenty of time to turn the tables. I don't think its doom and gloom at all. Okay we probably won't win everything but I can see us having a decent run in the CL and will be in the top 3 or 4 fighting it out I'm sure. City are eminently beatable and I look forward to us having another crack at them.